The Moz Blog

5 Creative E-Commerce Processes Worth Imitating

I've been watching Mystery Guest shop online a bit over the weekend (while drinking beer and observing manly NFL games) and I was surprised to see so many "web 2.0" features on the e-commerce sites she browsed. More interesting still were how the numerous breaks from convention appeared to enhance, rather than detract, from the buying experience. Traditionally, I think of convention as the star of conversion rate success, and while I'm not suggesting we throw that practice out the window, I think there are some new trends worth experimenting with.

The AJAX Overlay

Gap.com's overlay of a product detail

The clever part about Gap's (and Banana Republic's) overlay of a product detail page is that it allows users to browse more deeply into the catalog of products while remaining less committed than a full page change. This fits flawlessly with the model e-commerce should provide - an unobtrusive, in-depth look that gives the user complete control. You can get more details, see sizes and even "add to cart" right from the overlay.

The Color Selector

'Etsy.com's Color Picker

Shopping by color might seem a tad unneccessary to your average tech geek, but based on my small sample size, it appears to be a big hit with young women. Mystery Guest also loves the color selector at Michael Star's website, which lets you choose a color, then see all of the styles available in that hue. The appeal here is flexibility; the shopper can choose to browse by more than just a single categorical structure. This feature means that shoppers who organize their wardrobes or purchases by alternative taxonomies need not be locked into a single method of selection.

The Customizable Product

Puma.com's Mongolian Shoe BBQ

I personally found Puma's example to be challenging to use, despite the clever concept. The idea, however, relies on the long tail of e-commerce, combined with the reliable psychological desire of humans to feel special and unique. Admittedly, despite the tough UI, I'm considering designing my own custom SEOmoz Pumas. Several sites go even further with this concept, allowing users to not only create, but share their products (the most well-known of these is Metacafe). If you've ever wanted an army of creative, passionate customers doing all the work of designing, marketing and selling for you, this is your chance.

The Product Blog

Flypaper - Bluefly's Product Blog

If others can blog about your products, why not jump into the fray yourself. Several companies have had successful product blogs, but Bluefly's makes for a perfect example. It's not always centered around the product offerings and it offers fashionista readers a taste of the haute couture world. The real value here is only achieved when you can blog about your products in a way that doesn't make you sound like a shill - a tough task. Oftentimes, the key to winning them over is to find a blogger who's got the passion and blogging chops to make for an entertaining, engaging read. The product blog can extend to podcasts and videocasting, too, as illustrated by another of Mystery Guest's frequent online pitstops, FredFlare.

The Embedded Testimonial

PixelGirlShop's In-Depth Testimonials

While it's the least "web 2.0" of the features, I've seen only a few online shops craete the detailed testimonials you can find at PixelGirlShop. There's two impressive elements at work here. First, the testimonials have real people, with real passion for the products - a visitor can actually see the level of commitment in the photos. Second, the descriptions ingenuously blend the products into the description using links.

I won't go so far as to suggest that every one of these techniques is right for every e-commerce site on the web, but I would suggest that those of you who build and run stores throw some analytics onto your projects and start testing. Perhaps convention and creativity can co-exist harmoniously (and help make the web a better place to buy).

I'm sure these things are all wonderful in theory, but I happen to have had a considerable amount of trouble with the first example and similar types of things. I have a g3 (almost 4 years old) ibook running the latest mac os and the gap website crashes both safari and firefox. If i accidentally mouse over a product I get the spinning beachball and if it ever ends and the "quick (or not so much)" preview ever loads, i can look forward to more spinning colors when I try to close the preview. I can't get to the regular product page because the preview tries to load every time the pointer gets anywhere near the thumbnail. Gap has effectively excluded me from its potential customer base (had I not already been deterred by their refusal a few years ago to let me browse their site with safari..) I realize my ibook is old and slow, and in my case, the macbook pro should be on its way as I type, but I can't believe that I am the only person out there using an older/slower computer....By the way, I love shopping by color, another site that features that is like.com, which has some other nice fresh features in addition to the color-selector (also a little slow on my old mac, but not as bad as gap.com)

Hey Rand, we love these! Especially the AJAX Overlay and the Product Blog. Blogging without getting too carried away with advertising is tough. We tried another strategy, using a silly poem to draw attention, inform, and entertain. https://saleaxis.com/blog/online-shopping-the-epic-poem-version.html What do you think? Is this a worthwhile pursuit?

Great post.
Just out of curiousity, does anyone know how Etsy tacked the color calibration issue? I've always been hesitant to encourage clients to do anything close to this with their color scheme since what you see on screen isn't always what prints. Not everyone has a Pantone Wheel.

For the small retailer that wants to incorporate these techniques on their ecomm page, is there a "ready to develop it" on the shelf software program available to do this, without having to outsource it to a "flash expert?"
joel

I hear what jcohen is saying. As many of these features become standard, it raises the bar to entry for individuals and home based businesses. Gone are the days when you could use the Dreamweaver WISIWIG interface and a few pre packaged PHP scripts to produce a website that could compete with large corporations.
SEO was a great equalizer in those days but developing the expected user experience is quickly becoming out of reach for individuals. SEO and user experience often go hand-in-hand so I believe the recent developments are tipping the scale in favor of the larger corporations who can afford this kind of web development.

There's a lot to be said for giving conventional wisdom a second look before just going with something.
But there's equally (if not more) to be said for leaving well alone sometimes.
It's a fine line, one that needs to be walked carefully, and as you mention, with the aid of some statistical analysis.
In many ways, the target audience is going to lead the way.
I remember once developing a Flash-based ideas explorer for a client as part of their "Fresh Thinking" intiative.
They loved it .. but could they think of a way of 'selling' the concept internally to their staff? Err!
By the way: "I've seen only a few online shops craete the detailed..."

I think Bill Scott, 2.0 guru of Yahoo has said it best when describing using rich interenet applications. Only use it if it solves a problem for the user.
Also, a great note there on shopping by color. It is an often overlooked way to improve user experience and increase conversions (as is shopping by Brand). It still amazes me how many retailers haven't caught onto this. Converse increased their conversion rates 26% and AOV 20% when they added shop by color as a feature to their site. How did they know they needed it? Pink, Black and Green were three of their top ten internal search queries.
Another good example is what The North Face has done with their product pages.

I think it's worth mentioning that "product blogging" is basically the same as spam blogging, but the only difference is the method of marketing usually. I mean I don't think there's anything wrong with blogging about product, but you won't be able to "linbait" like Rand does on a daily basis because people don't like to link to what amounts to spam. If anything, so called product blogging needs to be offsite and you would probably get further by getting influential bloggers to blog about your product. Like, sending Engadget your latest mp3 player.

Hi Rand, I’m still confused about the buzzword "Web 2.0"
I went back to your "Web 2.0" Awards to look up the definition so I could understand why something might be more or less "Web 2.0" than the other but the term and associated jargon still seem meaningless to me.
A good feature is a good feature. Calling it a "Web 2.0" feature or saying that one feature has more "Web 2.0" fairy dust sprinkled on it than the other just doesn’t mean anything to me. Am I missing something?

It's just a word describing a set of trends - AJAX, RSS, Blogging, User-Generated Content, greater openness and sharing, targeting the "long tail" of demand, etc. The original O'Reilly picture is a good test of what people associate/assign the term to.